When studying the world of international politics, different frameworks are utilized to explain the actions and phenomena that occur. Most frameworks not only offer an explanation but attempt to put forth a solution for various problems. Liberalism and realism are two frameworks which are used to analyze the field of international politics. Both liberalism and realism provide the notion that states are the primary actors in the international political system. However, fundamental differences regarding the role of the individual and interactions among states make liberalism a more effective framework for understanding global politics. Realism is based on the assumption that states as actors in the international system are power seeking that
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The Cold War marks a period of great instability in which tensions were rising between powerful states in the international system. Both realism and neorealism fail to account for the fall of the soviet union and the period of peace and unipolarity following. A neorealist assumption claims that under a system of unipolarity, peace will most likely be achieved. If this claim is correct, it would account for the United States position as a hegemon following the Cold War in which issues not involving state actors such as cybersecurity and the war on terror became imminent. However, realism provides that states are constantly acting to maintain a balance of power, which would not allow for a peaceful unipolar system (M and A). Additionally, the events that occurred during the Cold War lead to consequences that must be attributed to individual actors rather than the state as a whole. In the Bay of Pigs invasion, US troop in Cuba were defeated after 2 days, leading to an embarrassing shortcoming of the United States government. This broke all diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba, and it strengthened the relationship between Khrushchev and Castro which lead to increasing tensions between the United States and Soviet Union. This greatly escalated hostility among the actors involved in the Cold War, and can event be attributed to the individual actions of JFK and Eisenhower. JFK’s failure to foresee the implications of the invasions denotes his lack of rational thought processing in this
The Cold War marks a period of great instability in which tensions were rising between powerful states in the international system. Both realism and neorealism fail to account for the fall of the soviet union and the period of peace and unipolarity following. A neorealist assumption claims that under a system of unipolarity, peace will most likely be achieved. If this claim is correct, it would account for the United States position as a hegemon following the Cold War in which issues not involving state actors such as cybersecurity and the war on terror became imminent. However, realism provides that states are constantly acting to maintain a balance of power, which would not allow for a peaceful unipolar system (M and A). Additionally, the events that occurred during the Cold War lead to consequences that must be attributed to individual actors rather than the state as a whole. In the Bay of Pigs invasion, US troop in Cuba were defeated after 2 days, leading to an embarrassing shortcoming of the United States government. This broke all diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba, and it strengthened the relationship between Khrushchev and Castro which lead to increasing tensions between the United States and Soviet Union. This greatly escalated hostility among the actors involved in the Cold War, and can event be attributed to the individual actions of JFK and Eisenhower. JFK’s failure to foresee the implications of the invasions denotes his lack of rational thought processing in this